Shredded, soiled and wrestled across the altar in a hideous display of torn vestments and diabolic mutilation Alberta, Canada-based quintet REVELATOR admirably prepare their first altar to ancient n’ arcane black-death metal with a truly heavy hand applied. Self-summoned beyond the usual trembling follower fare this debut full-length album, ‘Light the Devil’s Fire‘, speaks to the roots of evil heavy metal and the riff foremost throughout its dark and ugly crusade. This allows for a reasonably authentic result and a fine debut for fans of ‘old school’ black metal as they conjure late 80’s/early 90’s worthy sensibilities within a well-personalized sound.

Revelator formed as a duo back in ~2017 between vocalist/guitarist The Iconoclastic and drummer, guitarist, and bassist The Heretic both of whom have/had key involvement in Begrime Exemious alongside additional roles in black metal bands A.M.S.G. and Weapon. Their intention was to achieve what is described as “ancient and arcane” black/death metal sounds though we could be more specific in pegging their approach as something inspired by late 80’s/early 90’s spawned groups such as Mortuary Drape and Desaster where thrash and nascent death metal weren’t yet excised from the zeitgeist for the sake of post-‘A Blaze in the Northern Sky‘ inspired musing just yet. How this actually translates to the attuned listener today is probably something like ‘A Touch of Medieval Darkness‘ or earlier Grand Belial’s Key, mid-paced black metal with a strong heavy metal compositional component void of any one specific auld scene’s trait. This was put into practice within the span of their first two demos (‘Revelator‘, 2018 and ‘Revelator II‘, 2019) with the latter being the most prescient and capable flexion of their nerve before becoming a live-capable trio (later a quartet, now a quintet.)

While those general semblances of intent and old, crusted-over sounds still apply to description of ‘Light the Devil’s Fire‘ Revelator‘s debut LP doesn’t necessarily recreate or build so directly upon the raw simplicity of what they’d achieved as a duo in the span of those two demos… at least beyond reshaping and integrating at least one song from each (“He Who Reveals Grand Wisdom”, “Inside My Cryptic Chambers”). Six years later their tone has most notably changed to a triumphally thrashing patience, a galloping creed set to hollowed and creaking dual guitar tones and many-headed rasp. It is a surprisingly sophisticated result when compared directly with what their earlier sketches might’ve indicated. Within that strident, adventurously struck movement the space allowed for melodic phrase redefines “He Who Reveals Grand Wisdom” in particular as before we’d only had the song’s core groove in demo form. The revelation available here is not only a finer application of detail and stylized render but some extension, or, fleshing of auld ideas into a primal yet elegant form.

In terms of said stylized render expect a particularly percussive timbre applied to all but low-set, purely supportive bass guitar movement and some of the more midrange-sharpened leads. Rather than present a cold and distanced stage here they’ve opted for a decent sized garage or rehearsal space for the drums where their thumping is immediate to the skull and tightly sewn to the freneticism of the rhythm tracts. This is not necessarily a pure speed metal application in terms of sound design, to me it speaks to earliest USBM independence at times, but it does suit the more heavy/speed metal pressed songs such as their signature “By the Whip”. It isn’t the only song which suggests these guitarist’s are no stranger to a Razor or Running Wild stoked hand but I don’t want to suggest the full listen here is just a mashing of tropes down the pipeline. At any rate the collective rhythm guitar tone achieved is mean, heavily gritted and an essential feature of the full listen for my own taste.

Most of Side A aims for quicker socks of dirtier action, auld black metal grooves but as we reach the middle portion of the full listen Revelator‘s riffcraft begins to break out of that flow state into increased integration of both speed and death metal motioning: “Inside My Cryptic Chambers” has a bit of “Living Monstrosity” on its breath, for example. Where the second half of the venture gets most interesting to my ear is probably “Lest Thee Be Vexed” (b/w “Perpetual Undeath”) as this suits the holistic ideal described up front while more completely revealing the bands not-so buried heavy metal trait and structure. That’d probably be the best takeaway after spending substantial time with ‘Light the Devil’s Fire‘, that it is a fine heavy metal album first and foremost though I’d additional champion the grimed-over underground character given to their always riff-driven efforts. A high recommendation.

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